About This Blog
Craig Wiesner is a bi-weekly columnist for the San Mateo Daily Journal. A vital resource for the county and those who live and work there, Craig feels honored to be able to reach 80,000 people every other Tuesday. Local journalism is critical to our democracy! Please consider subscribing to or making a donation to the Journal to help keep it going. Craig posts his columns here on this site a week or so after his column appears in print and on the Journal’s web site.
About Craig Wiesner
Craig is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with a degree in Organizational Behavior and Adult Learning. Craig is a decorated veteran and John Levitow Honor Graduate (Air Force Leadership School) who spent eight years in the United States Air Force as a linguist, intelligence analyst instructor, and instructional designer at the Defense Language Institute. Craig later applied his expertise in education to the emerging computer networking industry, leading education departments for two Silicon Valley pioneers, Vitalink Communications and SynOptics (Nortel Networks). Craig was a co-founder of WK Multimedia Network Training, developing award-winning classroom and e-Learning courses for clients including industry leaders 3Com, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent, Nortel Networks, and Packeteer.
Craig has been deeply involved in social and economic justice issues and the peace movement for the last 20 years. He is a member of the steering committee for Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, a Bay Area interfaith peace organization. Craig has been a frequent contributor to the KQED radio perspective series and is a prolific writer whose opinion writing has appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Mateo Daily Journal, CommonDreams.org, the Christian Science Monitor, and DemCastUSA. Today Craig is a bi-weekly columnist with the San Mateo Daily Journal with columns appearing every other Tuesday.
Craig currently serves as a San Mateo County Commissioner on the LGBTQ Commission, the first such commission to have been formed in California. In his role as a commissioner Craig has spoken at dozens of events, recommended legislative changes at the county and state level, helped raise $2 million dollars in funding for the County Pride Center, worked with the Board of Supervisors to sign onto an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark case that recognized that LGBTQ people are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and for the last three years has participated in county-wide efforts to make Covid testing and vaccines available to everyone.
Craig co-founded Reach And Teach Books Toys and Gifts with his husband Derrick Kikuchi and they share their home with their dog Holly.